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Part 1: Knowledge & Conversation with the Transcendent Function - Holistic Qabala

Thus, then, having overcome the World of the Elements, does the Adept stand equilibrated in Tiphareth. In that equilibrium he must set forth upon the greatest magical adventure which has yet befallen him, to win the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, otherwise called his holy Genius. Equilibrium is vitally necessary to him in this quest, for the fulfillment which he seeks will not come about unless in accordance with the aphorism, "As Above, so below." ...The Holy Guardian Angel is a beam transmitted from...that Supernal region which even in symbolic representation defies dimension...this Being of living light and love whom the Adept, and he alone, is to know as his Angel. ...the Reality which is named in occult doctrine as the Holy Guardian Angel is the same which underlies the pale abstraction, Grace.

--Denning & Phillips/The Magical Philosophy, Vol. IV

Apuleius describes Socrates' genius (daimonion) as follows: He is "a private patron and individual guide, an observer of what takes place in the inner person, guardian of one's welfare, he who knows one most intimately, one's most alert and constant observer, individual judge, irrefutable and inescapable witness, who frowns on evil and exalts what is good." If one 'watches him in the right way, seeks ardently to know him, honors him religiously," then he shows himself to be "the one who can see to the bottom of uncertain situations and can give warning in desperate situations, can protect us in dangerous situations, and can come out to rescue when we ar in need." He can intervene "now through a dream and now through a sign [synchronistic event], or he can even step in by appearing personally to fend off evil, to reinforce the good, to lift up the soul in defeat, to steady our inconstancy, to lighten our darkness, to direct what is favorable toward us and to compensate what is called evil.

--Marie Louise vonFranz/Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology

Before the transforming power of the higher Self is personified on the Causal Plane as one's Angel, Guide or Guru, it is known as a symbol-forming function. In Jungian Psychology, this symbol-forming power of the psyche is called the transcendent function. Its purpose is to mediate between that which is unknown and that which is manifest. It performs its function by creating unifying symbols from pairs of opposites.

Thus, the Spheres of the Middle Pillar on the Tree of Life all represent the transcendent function, since they synthesize the qualities of the right and left hand pillars. They express a higher perspective which unites both qualities. On the Path of Return, Tiphareth is the first sphere to reconcile the opposites in a higher synthesis.

By synthesizing pairs of opposites into a symbol, the transcendent mode creates a method of transition from one set of attitudes to the next. An individual ego may work more effectively with subconscious processes by consciously attaching value to these symbols presented by the transcendent function.

Symbols ultimately must be transcended. They are fingers pointing at the Moon...or the Sun, but not the experiences themselves. One must use great discrimination in regard to one's own experiences as well as reports of others. Even mystical experiences, much less powers, are not the goal. Spirituality is Way of life, a practice. Just because someone believes they have met an angel, or channeled a higher being, or engaged in astral travel doesn't mean it is so. Even confabulated or imagined experiences can seem very real, just as they do when drug-induced. There is no enlightenment within the realm of duality, however, and they may simply be expansions of the ego.

Our task is to discover their transpersonal meaning, whether they are presented to us through dreams, attitudes, or behavior patterns. If the meaning were consciously understood, it would not be presented as a symbol. Therefore, once its meaning is realized over a period of time, another symbol appears to take its place, reflecting the new situation.

The transcendent function, seen as one's inner guide, angel, or guru, embodies the transmuting power of the symbol. The personification of the higher Self allows us to take up a relationship with the inner Self, and encourages dialogue and the development of feelings of loving devotion.

All the symbols and archetypal figures in which the transformative process are embodied are vehicles of the transcendent function. It is the union of different pairs of psychic opposites in a synthesis which transcends them both. The uniting symbol only appears when the inner psychic life is experienced as just as valid, effective, and psychologically "real" as the world of daily life.

The transcendent function, seen as one's inner guide, angel, or guru embodies the transmuting power of the symbol. The personification of the higher Self allows us to take up a relationship with the inner Self, and encourages dialogue and the development of feelings of loving devotion.

All the symbols and archetypal figures in which the transformative process are embodied are vehicles of the transcendent function. It is the union of different pairs of psychic opposites in a synthesis which transcends them both. The uniting symbols only appears when the inner psychic life is experienced as just as valid, effective, and psychologically "real" as the world of daily life.

The transcendent function, or inner Guide, restores the balance between the ego and the unconscious. It belongs to neither, yet possesses access to each. It forms a bridge for the soul to ascend, by lying in-between and participating in both inner and outer life. By relating to each independently, it unites ego and the unconscious.

The first glimmerings of Knowledge and Conversations with One's Angel are very similar to the descriptions of "peak experience" developed by Abraham Maslow. A peak experience is the result of the drive of the spirit in search of itself. The experience is self-validation, self-justified, and has intrinsic value of a unique nature for each individual.

There is an intense experience of the nearness of God, or divinity. This is the first state of grace, or mind-expansion. It is a response experience where one feels a sense of Presence. The true mystic takes this experience as his point of departure and grows in grace from it. The poet or artist uses this recurrent experience as a basis for artistic production (or inspiration) and personal euphoria.

When the contact is stabilized, the Guide can take the soul up to the heights of mystic rapture. A by-product of this contact is that the adept may consult at will with his guide for directions in any matter. This contact is known in Eastern systems as "getting the radiant form of the Master." It occurs only after one penetrates the lower Astral Plane through meditation.

One is able to see the radiant form, one sees the archetype of the Self in its pure form, uncontaminated by the personal complexes which would contaminate and denigrate its refulgence. Carl Jung describes this process of unfolding relationship in terms of the alchemical form of meditation.

What I call coming to terms with the unconscious the alchemists called "meditation." Ruland says of this: "Meditation: The name of an Internal Talk of one person with another who is invisible as in the invocation of the Deity, or communion with one's self, or with one's good angel." This somewhat optimistic definition must immediately be qualified by reference to the adept's relations with his spiritus familiaris, who we can only hope was a good one. . .Confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective or even impossible. . .the nigredo...It is right that the magnum opus should begin at this point, for it is indeed a well-nigh unanswerable question how one is to confront reality in this torn and divided state. ...almost nobody hits on the idea of using the objective hints given by dreams as a theme for meditation. ...When meditation is concerned with the objective products of the unconscious that reach consciousness spontaneously, it unites the conscious with contents that proceed not from a conscious causal chain but from an essentially unconscious process.

We cannot know what the unconscious psyche is, otherwise it would be conscious. We can only conjecture its existence, though there are good enough grounds for this. Part of the unconscious content is projected, but the projection as such is not recognized. Meditation or critical introspection of the object are needed in order to establish the existence of projections. If the individual is to take stock of himself it is essential that his projections should be recognized, because they falsify the nature of the object and besides this contain items which belong to his own personality and should be integrated with it. This is one of the most important phases in the wearisome process of self-knowledge. And since projections involve one in an inadmissible way in externalities, Dorn rightly recommends an almost ascetic attitude to the world, so that the soul may be freed from its involvement in the world of the body. Here only the "spirit" can help it, that is, the drive for knowledge of the self, on a place beyond all the illusion and bemusement caused by projection (Mysterium Coniunctionis, p. 497-499).

Knowledge of one's Self, which is identical with one's image of God, is the idea behind the east Indian idea of the purusha, Brahm or atman. This transcendental self constantly appears in cross-cultural appraisals of philosophical systems.

Translations of ancient Egyptian texts reveals that these people also had the experience of the Self.

In contradistinction to the Ka, which represented the world-creating power of a god or king and the life force in every human being, the Ba stands for an aspect of the soul, connected to the uniqueness of the individual. . .the Ba is an immanent component of every man, comparable to the concept Atman also representing the innermost center of the individual and as Atman Purusha -- the all-embracing Deity. The Ba, or soul is a power to be reckoned with even during this life, a power that men cannot escape by any conscious act of will and cannot entirely grasp by conscious understanding. The Ba has something to do with the incarnation of a god -- his individual forms of appearance on earth -- or represents an immanent component of a human individual. The Ba is prepared to witness against consciousness; it voices a personal, individual truth. It is a real power with claims of its own, capable of opposing the conscious intentions of those who take for granted that one is united with it. Ba is not interested in what is conventionally considered good; it obviously wants something else. Ba chooses the symbol of unborn children to express still unrealized potentialities. Ba cautiously leads the world-weary man to the real goal: the sense of at-one-ment with the Ba, newly gained through self-knowledge -- restoration of the wholeness of personality, now consciously experienced as the result of transformation. (Jacobsohn, "Dialogue of a World-Weary Man with his Ba").

Neumann has commented on the various soul-parts in Egyptian religion in his classic, The Origins and History of Consciousness. He links Osiris with the heart-soul, or Ba, and notes that the hieroglyph for "hear" and 'thought" are identical. He further asserts that,

The ka soul has a particularly important part to play in this process [of transformation and unification of soul parts]. It is extraordinarily difficult for us to understand what is meant by the ka...the Egyptians conceived it a man's double, as his genius or guardian angel, as his name and as that which nourished him.

When the ka and the body are purified and united -- the king -- like Osiris before him and every individual after him -- is a complete being who achieves perfection. Through this union of soul parts the king becomes a ba, a heart-soul who dwells with the gods and possesses the breath of life; he is now akhu, a perfect spiritual being.

The Ba represents paradoxically, both the unconscious personality complexes of an individual, but also the indwelling of the Self. On the other hand, the ka describes the pranas, or vitality of the life force, genetic heritage, and environmental effects on personality.

According to Plutarch, Isis and Osiris are very great "daimons" but they are not gods. Therefore they represent something which is trans-subjective but which is closer to the human than to the gods, something which can be experienced inwardly in certain states of strong emotion. (Von Franz, Projection and Recollection in Jungian Psychology)

Images of the Self appear spontaneously throughout the entire transformative process. It appears in all symbols from the highest to the lowest. At the beginning of the great work it appears in animal forms, such as snakes, birds, fish, horses, or beetles. It shows through the plant forms of flowers and tree symbolism. It progresses through metaphors of sexual union into human and mandala forms.

The symbols of the Self in human forms may be contaminated with other archetypes, since pure forms are rarely seen outside of mystical meditation. For example, if one's image of the Self were contaminated with the anima/animus, the vision would be of a vibrant, solar woman whose aura radiates like the sun. Contaminated by the shadow, one might experience a magical creature like Mephistopheles.

The inner daimon was an important component of early Greek Philosophy.

In the Timaeus (90B-90C), Plato sets forth his theory that every human being has a divine daimon that is the noblest component of the psyche. Whoever seeks wisdom and seriously concerns himself with divine and eternal things nourishes his daimon, whereas worldly trivialities abase and mortify him.

Some of the Stoics taught the existence of such a daimon in double form: one is a divine component of the psyche (Nous), but the other is a spark of the fiery-world-soul that has migrated into human beings; this latter daimon -- or this part of the daimon -- guides a man from without through his whole life. In the opinion of Plutarch (died A.D. 125), only a pure man can hear the voice of this daimon, a completely bodiless being who is the mediator of the supernatural, "parapsychological" knowledge to the human being he watches over. Neoplatonists thought of this genius-daimon as immortal, as one who becomes an actual divinity after his mortal sojourn.

As a result of the Stoa's spiritual-ascetic orientation in late antiquity, and of Neoplatonism, the Italic genius lost his earlier component of physical vitality, the pleasure principle, which originally had been innate to him. In De genio Socratis, a work by Apuleis, there is mention of two genii who live in human beings; one is the immortal ethical guardian and inner friend of a specific person, and the other (who live sin the genua, "knees) embodies sensual desire and covetousness and is evaluated negatively.

The daimon knows the future and is at all times in touch with the world-spirit, with the Logos or spermatic pneuma of the universe. In him masculine and feminine are merged, so that he is thus an androgynous symbol of wholeness, ...an archetypal image that, like the lapis in alchemy, unites the opposites of masculine and feminine in one figure (Von Franz).

Denning and Phillips (The Magical Philosophy, Vol. IV) speak about the relationship between the Adept and the Holy Guardian Angel, as practiced in their Order, the Aurum Solis.

Of such a meeting what can be written? -- but it takes place in the Sphere of Tiphareth, and little by little it unfolds the fulfillment of that sphere. Gradually does he come to understand that what he perceives is not the Universal Plan, but only that fragment of it which represents his own life-work: he could not perform it alone, but neither will this be expected of him.

Regardless of what we have said of the origin of this Being, the Adept's experience here is of an Angel of Tiphareth: for he is bounded by the Sphere of his attainment. Here, characteristically of Tiphareth, is all brought to harmony: or rather, with his new perception the Adept sees the underlying harmony, which is a greater and more potent condition than mere equilibrium, ever subsisting between higher and lower, between the things of Mercy and also the things of Severity (p. 99-100).

The soul may indeed rise towards Spirit, but has no means of transferring itself into the mode of existence of Spirit, since the latter comes from the Divine and thus partakes of the nature of pure Deed or Act.

Man in his lower consciousness is unable to apprehend directly the Atziluthic noumena, the pure Archetypes, without the assistance of his Intuitive Mind. This, then, is a problem to which no merely exoteric solution either in religion or philosophy is possible.

The descent of the Intuitive Mind is into that level of the Ruach which is named the Briatic Intelligence. ...the Briatic Intelligence awakens, and the Adept sees his Angel. (The epiphany of the Angel will be unique to the Briatic level of each individual psyche.) In response to the stimulus of the Angel, the Ruach grows to its fullness and the Adept learns to control and direct his new faculty. Many things, now, he will perceive "through the unknown, remembered gate" of Briatic consciousness, but the Ruach even in its highest development remains incapable of intuiting truth directly.. This is but one aspect of the matter, however, when the Adept, in the company of his Angel, grows from his child-state to maturity, when "realization of selfhood" is induced by the Holy Guardian, the Not-Self. (Ibid. p. 102-3).

In other words, Denning and Phillips are saying that even the higher mind does not contain the capacity to transcend itself, within itself. It must rely on Grace, or the function of the Angel to attain the next change of plane onto the level of the Supernal Triad. When this transition, or penetration, is accomplished the soul unties its knot with the mind, and the liberated soul realizes itself in its pristine condition. This ability marks a spiritual maturity which is a form of Self-Realization which transcends the level of Tiphareth, but comes before the unitive stage of God-Realization (Kether). Here, the soul realizes that "I am that," but in a stage beyond merging with Universal Mind. The soul can realize itself, unfettered, as the mind has merged in its source on the Causal Plane.

Now, the mind of the Adept will not, as we have said, be universalized, but it will be vastly expanded and inspired. Again, this quality of inspiration is proper to the Sphere of Tiphareth, which is the reason why that Sphere must be attained before the fullness of inspiration can be sought: but the fullness of inspiration is not found even in Tiphareth until one's Angel is one's Dionysus. Under this inspiration the Adept develops, until at last he knows the Gate of Daath wellnigh as his Angel knows it (p. 103).

Here, they are intimating about mystic rapture, a very exalted aspect of the Lord of Intoxication, Dionysus (Greek equivalent of Osiris). Mystic poets often write of the intoxicating qualities of the Beloved and contact bliss. Daath is a very peculiar point on the initiatory path, in that it is analogous to a gateway to another dimension. It means "Knowledge" in the sense of merging together. But this Sphere has both an upward and downward tendency; therefore, it can be a spiritual waystation or rest stop, or it may be a devastating experience of the "subconscious" mind of God (in which case, it is like a spiritual "black hole" with no escape).

Because of the danger of crossing the Abyss alone, Knowledge and Conversation very frequently means that one's Angel suggests acquiring a living Master in order to proceed further in spiritual development. It prevents going off in idiosyncratic directions which are fruitless, keeps one humble in the face of greatness, and provides all the other benefits of mentorship. A true master connects us with the higher planes. A living teacher, who is connected with the highest region, guarantees spiritual safety in crossing the Abyss.
Contacting your personal inner guide:

One begins the training for contacting the inner guide in the first stages of magickal training on the Path of Return. Taking the first step of initiation on the return journey up the Tree of Life implies that the soul seeks knowledge of, and union with the inner guiding principle.
All of the lower Spheres, or phases of personality transformation are designed to foster the attainment of Knowledge and Conversation with one's higher Self, Angel, or Guide. In the lower stages, this guide may appear in many forms. In fact, all of the symbolism of these planes are contained within, and coordinated by the Self.

It is simply that the level of consciousness of the aspirant requires that the Self only reveal certain of its aspects. Therefore, in Malkuth the guide appears as the "shadow," in Yesod as the "anima/animus," and in Tiphareth as the Guru or Angel. As consciousness develops, communication improves and the reliability of advice becomes better due to the lessened interference by interpretations and doubts of the ego.

All of the preliminary mental training of the lower spheres is designed to train and discipline the mind as a preparation for meditation. When one becomes able to meditate consistently and has a program for doing so, rituals of transformation are no longer necessary. Then the entire life is devoted and consecrated to the Great Work in a 24 hours-a-day program.

Training in pathworking and active imagination is all preliminary to the magician's major purpose, invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel (see Book VI, Art, "The Retirement Ritual"). Information and practice experience concerning archetypes and their influence designed to give one practical experience on the Astral Plane, but also to burn out the fascination with the inner movies of this lower level of experience of inner life.

When speaking of Tiphareth initiation, the student should be warned regarding the calling up of the Angel outside of a school of mystical practice. While it may seem a simple task to "get in touch with oneself," in practice it requires a great deal of direction. Consider the value of the psychologist in analysis to the client. In spiritual matters, the need for guidance and peer review is even more dramatic. In Zen Buddhism, the experiences of the meditator are always subject to critique.

Remember, a teacher can take you no further than he or she has gone. So, if an order teaches up to the level of Tiphareth only, they will be offering no further assistance. Nevertheless, "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." If one is truly at Tiphareth-level, help should be forthcoming spontaneously.

The danger of proceeding on one's own comes from the fact that the mind and active imagination are very tricky, and other entities can appear disguised as one's guide or Angel. Only a mystical school of inner development can teach the manner of testing and banishing these tricks of imagination.

Only the true guide can withstand the tests of discriminating among the spirits. And only a teacher who can penetrate past the realm of the mind, at will, can initiate on this level. Most magickal teachers, and Gurus have no training past the point of Tiphareth. Therefore, they consider the highest experience to be merging in the Universal Mind. Those who go further are known as Masters, Saints, or Param Sant Sat Gurus.

So-called "Ascended Masters" are of limited use at this stage, since they cannot initiate any souls from the higher levels. In order to gain spiritual benefit from a Master, both teacher and disciple need to be in a physical body at the same time, at least at the time of initiation.
Again, these visions of Ascended Masters are most frequently figments of the imagination or mind, intriguing through they may be. They are neither to be sought out, nor relied upon, since they cannot help the soul to liberate itself from the Causal Plane.

This may leave the reader somewhat bewildered regarding further progress. Therefore, it is recommended that one seek "professional" spiritual help, by contacting a living Master on a mystical path of God-Realization, if the highest union is desired.

In this case the Master (or Sat Guru) takes upon himself complete responsibility for the soul of the initiate, assuring it will reach its goal through the most efficient means. The Master becomes a composite symbol for the initiate. Ever-after his vision of the Self will be in the form of the master, and he will learn to contact his master's radiant form within. The Master is a living role model, and his directions and teachings, obeyed implicitly will provide the aspirant with the only shortcut available -- a bona fide program of mystical meditation.

There are always such living Masters on the physical plane, and we needn't have recourse to ascended master who are of no further practical value. Ultimately, of course, all Masters are One, since they are equally Son of the Father, and come from the highest spiritual regions to do their work of collecting souls.

However, if one has no luck in finding or acquiring initiation from a living Master, one must deal only with the resources at hand. Masters, after all, choose us, we do not choose them. They claim only certain souls are marked for their direction. It doesn't mean one is unworthy, just that they are not your designated teacher. This leaves some seekers dealing with the mind through active imagination, doing meditation for contacting one's inner guide.

One should begin this exercise in a condition of psychological equilibrium, or stability, not in any times of crisis. Adopt both a relaxed attitude and position, but one in which you will not fall asleep. Close the eyes and drop into a reverie state. Using the symbolism of Tiphareth as a take-off point let impressions begin to guide your attention. Take an active role in the unfolding drama, rather than just watching yourself go through the motions. Preserve the feeling of looking out from your own eyes, feeling the sensations of the astral body.

If you are ready for this experience, you should have gained enough training to formulate your own "entrance" to the Causal Plane, using appropriate symbolism. None will be given here, since each aspirant should create his own unique method of access. Perhaps, in past meditations you have been given your Angel's "name", as revealed through intuition. If this is the case, keep the name firmly in mind, repeating it while maintaining a sense of expectancy. Properly done, the Angel's countenance will appear spontaneously from the darkness, preceded by faint glimmerings of light and possibly some sounds such as the roar of the sea, or distant thundering.

If you hear any entity speaking to you, but can't see it, demand that it appear before you, then banish to make sure it is not a lower level apparition. If the entity withstands the banishing (pass a flaming pentagram through it), you may begin to ask questions. True inner guides will appear in human-like form on the Causal, though they may seen to have wings or radiant auras. They project a life-giving healing, rejuvenating warmth, and give a feeling of absolute peace and serenity.

The inner guide may not speak spontaneously. You must question it directly, and you will only obtain answers if the ego is willing to accept the information. Do not spend too much time on frivolous questions about your love life, desires, the future, etc. The guide will function as your bridge to higher levels of awareness providing you don't succumb to egoic desires.

Since high magick or mystical meditation is the only course left open for further soul growth and connection with the Neschamah, one might ask the Angel how to contact a teacher who is qualified to initiate the soul on these levels. Or in other words, ask the Angel, "How may I proceed further on my quest?"

At this point the Angel may offer suggestions, or the image of the Angel may be replaced by the vision of one's future teacher. This face may not be recognized until a much later time, when the master is met on the physical plane. If one continues to enjoin the Angel concerning further progress, the answer will inevitably be forthcoming. It is not even a matter of time, but inevitable, since we are speaking of a timeless/spaceless realm of actualized potential.

Remember, if you feel you have gotten a true contact with your Angel, you must apply its advice in your daily life. If you do not make the advice practical, you may lose the contact, and be unable to re-establish it. But be very careful that the advice you have gotten comes from the higher mind, or you may be led irretrievably astray into a low level of psychism and stuck in the Astral.

We are not speaking about a vague psychic awareness of direction, but a face to face meeting on the inner planes, the nature of which is unimpeachable. The dynamics should be such that it is an irresistible impulse to fulfill one's True Will. Similarly, initiations should be forestalled until it is impossible to resist, and the mind is completely satisfied or it will thwart the spiritual current with lack of practice, hesitation and doubt.
Your inner guide isn't about to volunteer any information at all, so always be prepared to ask your questions during the overwhelming inspiration which the angel brings. It is a good idea to formulate the questions beforehand, though they are subject to revision during the illuminative period.

Should you enter the inner planes at a lower level, getting say an animal form, be kind and gentle with it. Then ask who its superior is, and how to contact that being. Imagine you are rising on the planes of awareness and penetrating a higher level, and wait for that superior entity to contact you. Do not be lulled into an astral experience by becoming fascinated with the local color. For example, Hawaii can be an interesting place to visit, but is merely a way-station in the ocean if we are heading to India, China or Tibet to meet a great spiritual teacher.

Psychedelics may seem to free up the imagination for a rise in consciousness, but in reality they cloud the mind, and inhibit the higher faculties of discrimination. They may produce a seeming mind-expansion, but even psychologists call them false-ego states -- a trick of the mind. The experience is different for everyone and is never repeatable like true spiritual growth which is fully integrated into the personality.
We should be able to use imagination and meditation to enter these regions and withdraw from them at will, rather than being carried away on a trip in a regressive dissolution of consciousness. Remember, Causal-Plane-awareness means the mental faculties are fully present, not diminished through intoxicants which return us to the most primitive mode (prototaxic). Ken Wilber has spoken of this distinction as the "pre-, trans- fallacy"; The regression to pre-conscious aspects, though it appears similar in some ways, is certainly not equivalent to the transcendental nature of conscious development let alone Grace (syntaxic) which comes through consistent meditative practice. High Magick is not a shamanistic pursuit. When one enters "holy ground" the mind should be cleansed and pure.

When the attention is concentrated within in a focused manner, archetypal forces are awakened, or revealed to the aspirant. Awareness of daily life and sensory impulses is suspended during the meditation for contacting one's angel.

Upon completion of your session, be sure to write any results in your magickal journal. If the contact is poorly defined, watch your dreams for the next couple of days for further insight, or guidance. If these seem consistent with correct spiritual principles, work with these suggestions in your next meditation period.

This creative Archetypal Imagination is a stage up from the practice of simple Active Imagination. It is designed for an experience of the higher mind, through which we can perceive the pure form of the archetypes as they appear in the mind, uncontaminated by our personal ego-complexes. They are more themselves, and less colored by our personal bias, or prejudice. This does not mean they will not appear in a culturally-programmed form. A good Christian is likely to have a vision of the higher Self, which he would call "Christ," his ascended master. The mind seeks out that vision of Realization which the ego can comprehend. It is automatic. For example, you don't find people having NDEs where Jesus appears in the tunnel of light, in India.
By personifying the higher self, we can develop feelings of living devotion which open the heart. This "heart-chakra" activation is frequently felt in the camaraderie of a religious or spiritual group, and is quite supportive in that it forms a conducive atmosphere for further growth. That atmosphere fosters and supports consistency in meditation. Opening of the heart-center, through whatever means, shifts emphasis from an analytical mode into that which is spontaneously uplifting.

The image of the heart -- "l'immagine del cuor" -- was an important idea in the work of Michaelangelo who was strongly influenced by the Platonist tradition. Imagining with the heart refers to a mode of perception that penetrates through names and physical appearances to a personified interior image, from the heart to the heart. ...By imagining through and beyond what the eyes see, the imagination envisions primordial images. And these represent themselves in personified forms.
...Loving is a way of knowing, and for loving to know, it must personify. Personifying is thus a way of knowing, especially knowing what is invisible, hidden in the heart.
In this perspective personifying is not a lesser, primitive mode of apprehending but a finer one. It presents in psychological theory the attempt to integrate heart into method and to return abstract thoughts and dead matter to their human shapes. ...personifying is an epistemology of the heart, a thought mode of feeling.
...My soul is not the result of objective facts that require explanation; rather it reflects subjective experiences that require understanding. To understand anything at all, we must envision it as having an independent subjective interior existence, capable of experience, obliged to a history, motivated by purposes and intentions. We must always think anthropomorphically, even personally.
...we do not actually personify at all. Mythical consciousness is a mode of being in the world that brings with it imaginal persons...where imagination reigns, personifying happens...The persons present themselves as existing prior to any effort of ours to personify. To mythic consciousness, the persons of the imagination are real.
(James Hillman/Re-Visioning Psychology, p. 13-22).

The Angel is a personified soul-image in the tradition of the alchemical Anima Mundi, the Shekinah or the eastern Gurus and Sat Gurus. It is the magickal version of daimon or muse, in its most exalted aspect.
Hillman speaks further on personifying in reference to the Anima or World Soul, which is his personified equivalent of magick's Holy Guardian Angel.

She teaches personifying, and the very first lesson of her teaching is the reality of her independent personality over and against the habitual modes of experiencing with which we are so identified that they are called ego, I. The second lesson is love; she comes to life through love and insists on it, just as Psyche in the old tale is paired forever with Eros.
Perhaps the loving comes first. Perhaps only through love is it possible to recognize the person of the soul. And this connection between love and psyche means a love for everything psychological, every symptom or habit, finding place for it within the heart of imagination, finding a mythical person who is its supportive ground.
...Whether we conceive of this interior person as Anima or as an Angel, a Daemon, a Genius, or a paredros, or one of the personified souls in the traditions of ancient China and Egypt, this figure is indispensable to the notion of human personality. Some traditions, in fact have asserted that an individual without his soul figure is not a human being. Such a one has lost soul. (Ibid, p. 43-44).

Do not be overly concerned about the sex of your inner guide. It can appear in many forms. Most typically the inner Self of man is male, while the innermost aspect of a woman is female. The being most frequently appears as androgynous, or asexual. A woman who has a master who happens to be male will experience the higher self as this male form, without hampering her feminine progress. A female teacher for a male enhances his ability to perceive his soul in female form as Anima.
Hillman's description of the Anima, for example, corresponds in many ways to the Tarot Trump II, the High Priestess. Therefore, for him she appears to be functioning as a bridge from the heart-center to Kether, but he has no access past the Briatic, or Causal level, of psychological awareness, (at least from this description).